Title:Wishing Well
Rating: G
Summary: There is an odd little restaurant in the Grid, where you can make a wish and maybe have it Stolen on your behalf.
Disclaimer: TRON is not mine. Anything you recognise from TRON is not mine. Everything else however...
There is a small restaurant with an odd name in one of the quieter sections of the Grid. How long it's been there is anyone's guess – ask a program, and none could tell you, and the records don't seem to be clear on the matter. It isn't flashy and up to date, like theEnd of the Line, nor does it have the dangerous thrill of one of the seedy bars in the bad zones, but it is fairly popular. Inside, the interior is quietly classy, with sectioned booths for privacy and a live band playing mostly what a User might recognise as Jazz and Blues (although if one knows their music, some of the songs are suspiciously…modern). The ceiling is festooned with softly glowing lights (strangely reminiscent of a night sky for a place which has none), and the centrepiece is what the name of the place (oddly whimsical – who programmed such a thing?) is obviously derived from – a small data fountain, glowing gently blue and looking almost organic. Rumour has it, if you inscribe your wishes on a data chip and throw it in, it might come true. The food is excellent, the alcohol even more so, and the waiters and waitresses are young and charming and discrete. The manageress is an elegantly reserved program with a quiet little smile, who knows all her regulars and never seems to loose her cool. They serve everyone here, if your credit is good, and ask no questions.
The only mark against them is the rumours that persist of a link to the rogue program known only as Trojan, the flamboyant data thief with a thousand faces who has never been caught. She is an odd one, delivering notice of her thefts, and leaving a calling card behind. Of late, she grows increasingly bold, staging elaborate chases with improbable escapes, even, once, rescuing a program off the Game Grid in front of Rinzler himself. For all her flashy style, an interesting pattern has emerged – she is mostly interested in data on the Grid itself, and never once has any program been derezzed in her thefts before she vanishes, seemingly into thin air. The only trail she has left, is that the program she rescued had a partner, who wished in the fountain for his return. Even so, repeated sweeps by the Black Guard have turned up nothing, and the program in question and his partner have not been seen since. With such scarce evidence, the restaurant remains too popular to close, and the manager knows too many programs to simply be made to vanish (yet, at any rate), and so it remains open, and if some of the wishes in the fountain speak of a longing for something else…well. A wish is a wish, and who knows if it may come true? The Black Guard routinely check through those wishes now, but who knows if there are others who see them also?
So come in to the Wishing Well, and have a seat. Would sir like to make an order or see the drinks menu? Or perhaps, madam has a wish…?
AN: So TRON: Legacy was pretty and shiny (and had a rather bare plot BUT MOVING ON) and then my brain started correlating Trojan Viruses with Kaitous and...I don't even know anymore. But yes, apparently in my brain a Trojan virus manifests on the Grid as a Kaitou (a Phantom Thief for those not anime savvy). Incidentally the backstory supplied by the bunny indicates that every employee in this restaurant has a fake Identity Disc and has probably changed their appearance in some way. Probably the majority of them have been "stolen" from Clu. There is almost certainly an ISO or two among them. And yes, the music is oddly modern because hahaha, if a virus steals information she's got to have some connection to the outside so she can USE said information, no?